Kill Dax?

[otherjr]

I watched Deep Space Nine over the course of around the last year, having never watched it before, though someone did manage to spoil the death of Jadzia for me. When I heard that I thought it sounded like a great idea, heres this person that is actually seven people, two of whom were good friends of Sisko, that could pass on a symbiont and possibly live forever.

Killing off this character, symbiant included, seemed like dramatic gold to me. It also fits into the romantic aspirations of DS9, which includes a pretty high number of God figures: Bashir is beyond intelligent, Weyoun has numerous clones, Sisko is the Emissary, Odo is looked on as a god, and is also possibly immortal. If they had totally killed the Dax symbiant, it would have had soooo much more impact, and would have better set up the animousity between Sisko and Dukat which is resolved in the last episode.

I also think its problematic to have a new Dax on the show, because, just like the characters found it hard to move on and grieve for Dax, so did the writers, because she isnt really gone at all. The emptiness that appears when you lose a character couldnt really be exploited for dramatic purposes when there was a whole new Dax there.

Additionally, Trek writers have a big flaw when it comes to female characters, it seems like just because a character is female they have to set them up with someone, because it would be laughable to leave her single. This led to having to push new Dax together with Bashir in the space of one already pretty jam-packed season, even though they had absolutely no chemistry at all.

What does everyone else think?

 

[ChadHydro]

Yeah the transition from Jadzia to Ezri always sits very awkwardly in my mind. As everyone has always said, Jadzia's death was short and pointless. I do however like the turmoil it creates, ie Worf. I do also like that in the end Bashir ends up with Dax, even if it's not the Dax he thought it would be. But in the end most of the Ezri-centric episodes really are pretty bad.

 

[Ensign Johnson]

I didn't like Ezri at first but she grew on me. It was interesting to see how she reacted to being joined when she hadn't prepared for it like Jadzia had. I thought the Bashir thing was stupid too, why do tv shows always force two characters together in the final season?

 

[Marie1]

I thought this thread was going to be about killing the symbiont... lol!
I was trying to figure out why someone would want that...

I liked Jadzia better- the science, and I thought TF was a better actress... Ezri seemed like... other Jadzia... not different enough, somehow... I dunno... maybe it's that she was a councilor...

 

[TheGodBen]

When Terry Farrell left the show the writers had a significant problem; only 1 of the remaining 8 cast members were female, and the extended cast was mostly male too. DS9 was a sausage-fest and the departure of a female castmember was exacerbating the problem. The best way to resolve the issue was to replace Jadzia with another female character. The problem was that they were heading into the final season and they didn't want to introduce a character at that late stage that nobody was attached to. The solution was simple: kill Jadzia and introduce a new female Dax, that way the show maintains its male to female ratio and the audience will have an immediate attachment to the "new" character. While killing Dax off completely would have been a more dramatic option, from a production standpoint introducing Ezri was the best option available from a bad situation.

Personally, I preferred Ezri to Jadzia, so the change really doesn't bother me, it's actually one of the reasons why I enjoy watching season 7. That's not to say that I dislike Jadzia or Terry Farrell, I just happen to prefer Ezri. I think it would have been better if Ezri had been introduced a year or two earlier, she was introduced so late she stands out more as a replacement. I also liked the drama involved in the transition between Jadzia and Ezri and how it impacted upon the other characters, but placing all that in the final season as the show was wrapping up wasn't ideal, having that in season 5 or 6 would have been better. So too would the Ezri/Bashir romance, which I also liked because it was one of the things that helped the show come full circle.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Jadzia's death didn't work for me. And it had nothing to do with the fact that it was the worst kept secret at the time. In fact, I was dreading it the whole episode but when it happened it was so limp.

I preferred the more brutal death the writers had originally pitched to Berman that he rejected. But I liked Ezri more than Jadzia because I thought Nicole was a better actress and had better screen presence.

 

[Praxius]

I watched Deep Space Nine over the course of around the last year, having never watched it before, though someone did manage to spoil the death of Jadzia for me. When I heard that I thought it sounded like a great idea, heres this person that is actually seven people, two of whom were good friends of Sisko, that could pass on a symbiont and possibly live forever.

Killing off this character, symbiant included, seemed like dramatic gold to me. It also fits into the romantic aspirations of DS9, which includes a pretty high number of God figures: Bashir is beyond intelligent, Weyoun has numerous clones, Sisko is the Emissary, Odo is looked on as a god, and is also possibly immortal. If they had totally killed the Dax symbiant, it would have had soooo much more impact, and would have better set up the animousity between Sisko and Dukat which is resolved in the last episode.

I also think its problematic to have a new Dax on the show, because, just like the characters found it hard to move on and grieve for Dax, so did the writers, because she isnt really gone at all. The emptiness that appears when you lose a character couldnt really be exploited for dramatic purposes when there was a whole new Dax there.

Additionally, Trek writers have a big flaw when it comes to female characters, it seems like just because a character is female they have to set them up with someone, because it would be laughable to leave her single. This led to having to push new Dax together with Bashir in the space of one already pretty jam-packed season, even though they had absolutely no chemistry at all.

What does everyone else think?

To me, it had nothing to do with exposing the viewer to the loss of an important character in the series, since that's been done before.... what hasn't been done was introducing the viewer into the situation Sisko was put into before the series began. He had to deal with the loss of Curzon Dax and to get used to a different person, different personality, yet still the same memories etc. existing.

When DS9 began, we never experienced this, nor could we exactly comprehend what this transition would be like. Dax told us in the past through various episodes that friendships do not always last to the next host, and whether it was the writer's intentions or not, having Jadzia be killed off and thus bringing in Ezri, forces the viewer into a position of non-closure like what Worf ended up dealing with...... viewers either liked the change, hated the change, or it didn't phase the viewer at all..... thus giving the viewer as close of an experience as possible to what Sisko and a few others on the show went through.

In regards to giving her a relationship simply because she's female...... I don't see this. Since the beginning of the show, Bashir continually had a thing for Dax.... but Jadzia went for Worf instead. Through the entire series we continually see poor ol' Bashir being single and lonely.... constantly waiting for O'Brien to get off work or for his wife to let him go outside and play, usually Bashir ends up spending the day all by himself or acting as a third wheel.

Jadzia, while enjoying Bashir's flirting, didn't quite care for any serious relationship with him, simply because she found him a bit on the immature side..... When Ezri came along, the host was much younger, not as sure of herself as Jadzia, and now Bashir was in a sense, more mature. Bashir still held attraction towards Ezri, though different from what he held towards Jadzia..... and Ezri not only held the past memories of Jadzia liking some of Bashir's "attempts" but she also grew attraction for Bashir on her own as well.

Through the entire series, the overall storyline begged for Bashir to eventually hook up with someone, and this finally allowed it to occur with one of the people he tried to hook up with since the beginning..... although not in the way most shows would have us expect it to happen. (ie: killing the character off, then bringing the character back somewhat different)

 

[Navaros]

I don't agree that there is any potential for dramatic gold in killing Dax. For that to be the case, Dax would have had to have been an interesting character. She wasn't.

Killing an interesting character like Odo, Quark, Garak etc. could have made for dramatic gold.

I do think they could have handled Dax's death better, like by killing her in Change of Heart like the episode was pretending it would anyhow, or going with Moore's idea to have Dukat execute her.

But even with those changes, Dax's death would have had little meaning.

If she died in Change of Heart it would have posed an interesting moral dilemma around the idea if Worf should have gone back or left her in the first place etc. That would have been dramatic gold. But not because of the Jadzia character, rather because the idea itself is interesting regardless of what character is involved with it.

I do agree that it was ridiculous how the writers felt the need to couple everyone. This is supposed to be a SciFi show, not a soap opera.

 

[Praxius]

Well speaking for myself, I found Jadzia quite the interesting character, in more ways then one.... she wasn't my favorite character, but watching DS9 through a second and then a third time in the past year, I grew to appreciate her character and how well developed she ended up being.

Previously I felt she was more or less just "filler" but then that was also back when it was on TV and I wasn't watching the series full on at that time, so I wasn't absorbing all the messages and meanings in the show like I recently did.

I agree that her death was pretty dumb.... to a degree. Having her suddenly die at Dukat's hands was certainly short and unexpected...... but at the same time, it was good timing in the story.

Her and Worf's relationship was working out just fine, Worf finally began to open up some more, everybody was healthy, everybody was fine, she just heard that her and Worf could have a baby and everything was on the up and up....... then they took that all away from the viewer, ripped it apart and stomped on it..... to say the least, my wife was upset they killed off Jadzia, as she was one of her favorite characters on the show.

And then when you finally deal with the situation and accept that this character is no long a part of the show, they screw you around once again and bring her back..... so to speak and toss the viewer into the above situation I explained previously in regards to forcing the viewer to deal with what Sisko had to go through (The change in host and whether or not one can accept it or not)

 

[Damask]

When Terry Farrell left the show the writers had a significant problem; only 1 of the remaining 8 cast members were female, and the extended cast was mostly male too. DS9 was a sausage-fest and the departure of a female castmember was exacerbating the problem. The best way to resolve the issue was to replace Jadzia with another female character. The problem was that they were heading into the final season and they didn't want to introduce a character at that late stage that nobody was attached to.

While I never had a problem with Ezri, they did introduce a Romulan female at the start of season seven who could have worked. And created abit of tension with Sisko and Kira actually,